Nothing is more uplifting than seeing the smiling face of a hungry child receiving a nutritious meal, or a mother with tears of joy in her eyes because she knows she’ll be able to feed her family with the bag of food staples she just received.

During a recent trip to Guatemala and Honduras, a couple of our staff members were able to capture some moments like these with photos. Below are a few of the many grateful faces they saw while visiting feeding programs we support in Central America.

We are able to feed needy people such as these because of the continuing support of American Christians. Click here to learn more about the feeding programs we support around the world and how you can help.

Cross supports education and microenterprise programs that promote development.

There is an old saying that goes: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” The second part of that saying is the goal of much of the work we do to help the poor here at Cross.

However, during staff devotions this morning we were reminded of how important the first part is, as well. Our newest projects officer recently returned from Central America. It was his first time visiting some of the projects we support there, and he was struck by the impact of our elderly feeding programs — those meeting an immediate need rather than supporting development.

Cross also meets the poor’s more immediate needs through feeding programs for the sick, elderly, and vulnerable children.

“These programs provide palliative care to deal with the effects of poverty. As we minister to the more immediate needs of these people, we are expressing the love of Christ in a very real way,” he explained. “Yes, it is important to teach people how to fish, so to speak, but what about the people who are too old or sick or unable to learn how to fish? Should we just forget about them?”

It is clear from Matthew 18:14 — “Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” — that every person is important to God.

Giving an elderly woman a daily meal is just as meaningful in God’s eyes as supporting a scholarship or microenterprise program. Both are meeting important needs of the poor and, in the process, sharing the gospel of Christ with them.

Click here to learn more about what Cross is doing to meet both the immediate and long-term needs of the poor in Latin America.

Ask a boy who his hero is, and chances are good he’ll name an athlete, rock star, actor, or even a comic book character. But 10-year-old Joshua, who lives at the Cross-sponsored Kondanani Village in Malawi, is no ordinary boy. His hero is a charismatic Zambian preacher he watches on TV, and he’s already started to emulate him.

Joshua, 10, weighed only 2 lbs. when he came to Kondanani as an infant.

When Joshua first came to Kondanani as an orphaned infant, he weighed only two pounds. Today he is a healthy, outspoken boy who loves telling other children about Jesus and inviting them to receive him into their heart. Once a week, he also helps out with evangelistic outreaches in the local village, where they do drama presentations, music, teaching, and prayer.

Joshua’s zeal for ministry shows. He took the initiative, without any suggestion from the adults, to organize a group of friends to sing worship songs. Despite their young age, the boys are as polished as a church choir. They sing loud and joyfully, with perfectly coordinated dance moves and harmonies.

Without hesitation, Joshua will tell you what he wants to be when he grows up: a preacher! He is just one example of the many lives saved and nurtured at Kondanani, a Christian orphanage where children are rescued out of squalor, rehabilitated from malnutrition, given a quality education unlike anything else in the country, and best of all touched with the love of Christ.

Click here to learn how you can be a blessing to Joshua and all the other precious children at Kondanani.

Last year, the United Nations projected a rise in world hunger to 1.02 billion people – more than one-seventh of the global population! Statistics on hunger are always rough estimates, and the results can vary greatly from one study to another. But one thing seems clear: the U.N. number is no exaggeration. In fact, it may be too conservative!

The United Nations projected a rise in world hunger to 1.02 billion people!

For starters, the U.N. study only tells us how many people are undernourished; not how many are malnourished. In other words, a person who is eating regularly and getting more than enough calories, but who is too poor to afford the variety of foods necessary to meet basic vitamin and nutrient requirements, would not have been counted as “hungry.”

The definition of hunger was restricted even further by a very low standard for minimum energy needs. The number of calories was based on a “sedentary lifestyle” or what is needed to live a healthy but inactive life. But many poor people work very hard to support themselves and need more food to maintain a healthy energy level.

Whatever the true number of the hungry, it’s encouraging to know that there are many dedicated Christians doing what they can to meet the nutritional needs of the poor around the world. Cross International is blessed to be working alongside a number of fantastic ministries, such as the Moses Project in Ecuador and the Rainbow Network Feeding Program in Nicaragua, that are bringing both physical and spiritual nourishment to the hungry on a daily basis. Click here to see our complete list of Cross International feeding programs, and get involved today!

When 79-year-old Precious lies down at night, he finds momentary relief from the pain that gnaws at his bones by day. After working more than fifty years cutting sugar cane in the Dominican Republic, the Haitian-born immigrant has little to call his own.

Precious, a 79-year-old Haitian immigrant cane cutter who is too old to work, has food to eat every day because of food shipped by Cross with the help of American Christians.

He had to stop cutting cane five years ago because of his health, and since then has had to depend on the kindness of strangers to survive as he has no source of income. He lives in a ramshackle hut made of old boards and rusted tin among other cane cutters in a small shanty community.

Before he began receiving a bag of monthly food staples through a Cross International feeding program, Precious would go many days without regular meals. During a recent trip to the field, he told some staff members from Cross: “When you bring me food, I know it is God who sent you to save me from hunger.”

The feeding program that keeps Precious from going hungry is one of many supported by the food we ship with the help generous American Christians. Shipping food is an easy and effective way to meet the needs of the poor in many countries — and not just their physical needs.

Shipping food sends a tangible message of God’s love to someone who may never have read the Bible or stepped inside a church. While your support helped feed the bodies of the hungry, their hearts were also edified by the knowledge that a Christian cared enough to step out and do something about their need.

It is amazing to witness the incredible generosity of our Christian brothers and sisters in developing countries. For example, Jim Kline, our Africa Projects Officer, recently returned from Ethiopia with a beautifully-woven basket. A very poor, single mom had given it to him. It was one of the very few things she owned, and she’d made it herself—she wove and sold baskets for a living. Her gift represented an enormous amount of time, as well as food and other necessities the sale of that basket would have meant for her family. But she insisted he have it.

Africa Projects Officer, Jim Kline, accepts the generous gift of four cabbages from an impoverished woman who grows them for income.

Another poor Ethiopian woman grew cabbage on a small plot of land to sell in the marketplace. She absolutely insisted Jim take no less than four of her cabbages. Again, that gift represented a generous portion of the only source of income she had, but she gave it out of Christ-like love. Both women were able to earn their livelihood because of Cross’s support of an income-generation program for marginalized women. It was their way of giving back out of their bounty.

When one elderly man in Haiti was asked why he cooked what little food he got from a Cross-sponsored feeding program and invited his poor neighbors to come and eat, he explained, “The Bible tells us, what I have I’m supposed to share with my brothers and sisters, even if they don’t share with me…When it’s all said and done, it’s not me giving it to them. It’s God giving it to them, because it was God who gave it to me.”

1 John 3:17 tells us that if we have material possessions and see a brother in need but have no pity on him, the love of God is not in us; and James 2:15-17 says if we see a sister without clothes or food and simply give her good wishes but do nothing to actually help her, our faith is dead.  The people Cross works to serve—the poorest of the poor—have next to nothing; yet they freely and generously give, not only to their needy neighbors, but also to those of us like Jim, who have more material possessions than they will probably ever own. Christians in prosperous countries such as the U.S. could benefit from their incredible examples of selflessness. In fact, it’s among Cross International’s Core Values.

On Wednesday, many Christians began observing Lent, a time of prayer and fasting during the weeks leading up to Easter. Although some denominations don’t recognize Lent, the practice has a long history among both Protestants and Catholics.

There’s a tradition that during Lent, Christians will give up a particular luxury they enjoy, such as unhealthy foods or even television. But this year, some pastors are calling on their flocks to take a slightly different approach: don’t just give something up – give it away.

The Rev. Bill Hewitt from the Church of Scotland encouraged his congregation this week to reach out with their time and talents to others in need: “I prefer the idea of Lent being a time of giving of ourselves in service to others. This runs contrary to a culture that suggests that the only thing that motivates people is money.”

Lent is a great opportunity for Christians to bless others while denying themselves. We can turn our thoughts not only to the needs of the neighbor across the street, but also to the poor and downtrodden around the world. Of course, not everyone can personally travel to a faraway land to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, but those of us who stay home have an important role to play in supporting those who go.

Our Cross International mission partners simply could not do what they do without the generous giving of our Christian donors. Whether you choose to feed orphans at the Kondanani Children’s Village in Malawi or build houses for poor families in the Philippines, your gifts make a real difference. Check out our online project catalog to see how you can be a blessing in someone’s life today!

Between serving as a guide and translator for an NBC news crew and personally delivering pillows for all the beds at the main Project Medishare hospital in Haiti (as he put it, “My vehicle looks like a giant cotton ball!”), Cross International Projects Officer Michael Wilson has successfully established a food distribution network in the greater Port-au-Prince area and the badly damaged cities of Leogane and Jacmel.

Cross International arranged for this C737 cargo plane to airlift supplies into Port-au-Prince

The food recipients include long-term Cross partners such as the Bethsaide short-term shelter in Jacmel, as well as internally displaced persons (IDP) camps where many earthquake refugees are now living. These groups will benefit from a $1.3 million shipment of emergency supplies that Cross arranged to be airlifted to Port-au-Prince in two C737 cargo planes over the weekend. The shipment includes 50,000 lbs. of fortified rice/soy casserole, bagged corn, water, an electrolyte replacement drink, tarps, and diapers, and is now being stored in a partner’s warehouse near the airport, where the goods are already being picked up for distribution.

Michael also reported that one of the orphanages Cross supports has now relocated from Leogane to an open field in Tabarre, where the children are living in tents. On Monday, Michael visited CBC’s Butte Boyer School to offer our condolences to the widow of Pastor Guy, who was killed when the building collapsed, and to assure her that we will help the school and church recover from their loss.

Get more of the latest Haiti updates at www.crossinternational.org/relief

When Paul wrote that “faith is the substance of things hoped for,” he might just as well have said, “Expect to spend some quality time in the waiting room.” The Christian walk is an exercise in patience.

Right now, many churches are observing Advent, the season leading up to, and anticipating, Christmas. Advent means “coming” or “arrival,” and is a period that symbolizes the yearnings of a broken world for the Messiah. It not only anticipates Christ’s birth, but also looks forward to his triumphant Second Coming. We say together, May he come quickly!

It’s been two thousand years since the resurrection, and millions of people still don’t know the Messiah has come. They’ve never heard the gospel, and they do not share our hope, but they yearn for salvation. Among those people, many also seek help of another kind. They need someone to quench their thirst, to satisfy their hunger, to put clothes on their backs and a roof over their heads. They’re poor physically as well as spiritually.

This Advent, we should contemplate the hope we have in Christ, and how we can share that hope with others. We bear the good news the world has been waiting for! And we can demonstrate the power of the message by joining it with acts of compassion, such as by providing food, shelter, and medical care for orphans.

Our work at Cross International really is evangelism. We give a sandwich to a hungry child to give him hope that he will live another day; an education to give him hope that he will find a job and earn an income; and the gospel to give him hope that the grave is not the end. While we wait for Christ’s return, a poor and marginalized child is waiting for you to reach out and welcome him into God’s family!

In this line of work we’re constantly inspired by “every day” people who accomplish incredible things because they obeyed God’s call. Here’s a story about one of those inspiring people:

Pastor Javier says grace with the children before their meal. The children quickly learn a routine that includes hygiene, manners, and prayer. While they eat, volunteers tell them Bible stories and teach them about Jesus.

Families of Los Claveles, in Lurin, Peru live in the most humble conditions. Huts made of adobe and straw mingle with shanties made of scraps of cardboard—the only materials available to the very poor. Dozens of skinny stray dogs wander in packs, tearing through garbage strewn alongside the dirt roads. The community has no potable water source, so the children lack good hygiene; and they have most likely all contracted worms from drinking unsafe water.

Javier Barrionuevo, who pastors a church an hour away from Los Claveles says, “I came here with a friend one day to help him run an errand. While I waited outside, I chatted with a little boy who was playing in the street. He was very dirty. When I began to talk to him about Jesus, the boy asked, ‘What’s Jesus?’ That’s when I felt called to spread the gospel here.”

Pastor Javier acquired a small warehouse-like structure in Los Claveles—a former nightclub—and with help from Cross, equipped it to start a program to feed the many, many malnourished children there. Today it is home of a newly-planted church, Calvary Chapel Vida—The Living Calvary Chapel. He says, “God coordinated everything. In a way, it was already prepared when we got here!”

Today, with support from Cross, Calvary Chapel Vida feeds more than 100 children each day. The church also hosts child and adult Bible studies throughout the week, and holds Sunday School and church worship service on Sundays. It is truly transforming the community for the better.

Pastor knows all about the transforming power of God. He says, “I went through many things in my life. I was abandoned by my father and got into drugs and alcohol. When I hit bottom I turned to God, and he took me out of that. I don’t know how, but I quit drugs. There was a radical change in my lifestyle. I had been a successful businessman. I had money, a car, a good job. But the first thing I did when Christ saved me was to detach myself from material things. I renounced everything and everyone. My ambitions changed and I realized I had felt empty all along.  Nothing fulfills me more now than the smiles of children, and preaching the gospel. Through it all I learned the most important lesson: Walk in faith and trust God.”

CLICK HERE to learn more about Pastor Javier’s outreach in Los Claveles.